Turq & Lime Bag & The Shower

I'm trying to find the ideal bag (for me and others) and I keep trying different sizes, weights of fabric, color combos etc....I'm real pleased with this one. It's reversible...both fabrics are a heavy-weight cotton canvas that I dyed. I made the bottom larger also.


The brown webbing works well with both colors...and the whole thing can be thrown into the washer and dryer.

Here's my daughter at her shower (Baby Monster Bash actually....she was married on Halloween after all! It was more of a party for Mike and Keri, and men and women were invited) ...this turtle themed quilt was made by the mom of our good friend Gail...along with little hats and booties....so cute.

We asked everyone to bring (or send) a favorite book for Logan's library...Keri loves books (she hopes to write and illustrate some of her own someday soon!) and it was fun to see what people's favorites were.

Keri plans to draw and paint some things on the wall...Franklin the Turtle is her theme. The quilt I made for Logan hangs on the crib.

Marcia

Eye Candy!

As promised...a few of Doshi's beautiful pieces of wearable art...crazy good!!!

Later today or tomorrow I'll have the pictures ready from the shower...it was great.

Marcia

Fabulous Class...Doshi !

Pro Chem in Massachusetts (http://www.prochemical.com/workshops.htm ) hosts some of the best classes I've taken...and this past weekend was a real highlight! Doshi ( http://www.doshifiberart.com/index.htm ) came from So. California to teach 14 of us the magic of shibori with acid dyes on silk and silk blends. I am so in awe of the beautiful fabric that we all created...below are some of the results. I can't remember who did what on all of them....so just enjoy the eye candy. The first picture is the last couple pieces I did...the richness of the colors is amazing.

Next piece done by Doshi.

Doshi and Nancy hamming it up!

Scarf done by Brigid who came from Durham, No. Carolina.

This piece was done by the only gentleman in the group, Barry, who with his wife Linda came from Iowa.

Detail of Barry's piece.

Doshi demonstrating using a syringe with dye.

Linda using the tool to help tie those tiny knots in the fabric that produce such beautiful designs...kumo knots, I believe they are called. Barry's piece had many.

I hope to post some more pictures later today....mostly Doshi's beautiful clothing samples. But if I don't get to it I'll do it next week. I'm off to Orlando tomorrow to prepare for Keri's baby shower Sunday....it's getting so close!

Marcia

Sleeve Bag ???

Well...I quilted a piece of the floral patchwork with the intention of starting a little girl's jacket. I cut out a sleeve, encased the edges in binding to finish it nicely and then decided it was too bulky for a little jacket...but it was too nice to just discard. Sleeve-shaped place mat? NO! I played with it...folding.... manipulating....hmmmm.....would make a cute make-up bag or something similar.

So I sewed up the side seams...took the excess fullness at the top of the underarm of the sleeve and folded and tacked it...put on a large button and made a wrap tie from some of the bias binding...voila!

I now see a larger bag out of this fabric......

Marcia

New Baby Quilt

As I sit upstairs in my sewing room watching TV (dancing, loser, idol, model, survivor etc), I am trying to grab a prepared project and work on it. Since I often cut out clothing patterns, or strip up fabric for quilts, I usually have something that can be done just at the machine....so I can watch and listen and work at the same time....works for me!
Last week I started to put together what was supposed to be a queen-sized quilt. When I had this much done (center light-colored piece) I decided I needed some baby girl quilts more than I needed a queen quilt (I can get 5 baby-size from the same pieces)...so this is the result of that decision. I added the borders and machine-quilted straight lines...that much quilting I will do.


I love these fabrics...I may make a couple little girls jackets from some of this too....stay tuned.

I'm off to Pro Chemical in Mass. on Thursday for a 3-day class on shibori dyeing with acid dyes on silk....teacher is Doshi... http://www.doshifiberart.com/index.htm ...she's fabulous...I have some of her wearable art as I admire her work tremendously. Of course, I'll take pictures.

Marcia

New Quilt

With a little push from a friend (thanks Eileen :), I managed to get another quilt top put together...this one is made from Judy Robertson's gorgeous fabrics. I started collecting her hand dyes many years ago when I went to a class at Quilting By The Lake in Morrisville, NY... she was a vendor there. I had never seen anything like them and bought a bunch....now it's time to use them. I can make the simplest quilts and this fabric supplies the magic.

I've just sent it off to Desiging Quilts to be quilted...I'll show you the results when I get it back.

Marcia

Fabric Play Day

Three of us met at Val's yesterday to begin exploring Kerr Grabowski's Deconstructed Screen Printing techniques. We've all taken a wonderful class from Jane Dunnewold on screen printing at Pro Chem....so we have a bit of knowledge....but we always want more! Gotta keep our brains learning new things.... The piece above is one of mine (best one I did) done with ripped paper and acetate stencil....I have alot more to learn!



For one thing...the painted screens need alot of time to dry totally...the screen for the piece above (also mine) was used too fast...the dye released too quickly...lesson learned.

This piece I did with ripped paper...didn't like it immediately...but after washing I like it alot.

This piece is Val's....very successful. The colors were rich all the way. It should be great once washed and ironed.

These are two of my painted screens...next time I will paint them the night before. We also had an issue with the release paste...mine was on the shelf a couple years or more...didn't thicken up to optimum thickness....lesson learned.

This is another of Val's pieces...we didn't love the darker circles...but she will address them with another process...perhaps foil.

This was a very successful piece of Nancy's. The colors are much richer in person...she was very happy with this one.

We had a fun day, a great lunch (Val served a delicious white wine with yummy ratatouille made by Nancy and fresh fruit for dessert) and we'll meet again to continue the learning.

Marcia

New Bag

I made another bag with the 11 oz. canvas that I think is too heavy for the jackets I make....but it's perfect for these totes. I dyed the canvas with Amethyst and screened the pocket piece with black, since I only had black webbing for the straps.
I have purchased some plain natural webbing and I'm going to dye that and see if I can get the intensity of color I want to match some other bag fabric colors that I already have dyed.

Each time I make the bag I find something different I want to do (because it's not right or it can be better), either in the sequence of sewing, or size of pieces, or thread color (matching or contrasting), way to finish seams...and on and on. I'm told that's a Virgo trait :)

Next up is a beautiful turquoise bag with brown webbing. Gotta get the taxes done first...been procrastinating....another Virgo trait?

Marcia

Early Spring Cleaning

In the past couple weeks, this is the only fabric work I've gotten to...and that was only because I was watching a 2-hour show on 60's music on PBS. This is a small piece I started in Melody Johnson's class at Hudson Valley last year. The fabric is silk broadcloth...it just needed to be quilted. Now it's ready to be either bound and hung, or made into a pillow or bag or incorporated into clothing.

I have to say that the quilting is my least favorite thing to do, and this is about the biggest piece I want to tackle myself. My real joy comes from the fabric and sewing parts of the process...that's why I send my larger pieces out now to be quilted.

I have been cleaning out closets and getting rid of my larger clothes...feels great. And that led to deep cleaning of the closets and basement etc....22 years in one place and we've accumulated alot of stuff. It's time to purge a bit. So that's mostly what I've been doing the last couple weeks... oh, and planning for a baby shower, buying a new car, planning a trip to Florida, ordering a new fence for the yard (installed tomorrow), watching American Idol, Biggest Loser, and my absolute favorite Project Runway! Tonight is the final...and re-runs are on all day today!

Marcia

SNOW DAY!!

Because it looks like this today...I got to stay home from work...yea!!!! It's actually the most snow we've had this season...no complaints. Poor Terry had to go up to Columbia University in Harlem to ref a game tonight. He just left at noon for a 7PM game (normally a 1 1/2 hour trip).....fingers crossed!.

THis is what's on my design wall at the moment...I'm trying to use up some pieces of my dyed fabrics before I dye anymore in the Spring. The row on top is pieces from last year's Melody Johnson workshop...still need to be finished.

When in Florida last week Keri (she's doing great) and I went to Ikea...I loved this polka-dot rug and carried it back on the plane. We have an Ikea here but it is a trip to go there...and I didn't know if they would have this....it sits in my sewing room.

Speaking of Melody...this small quilt/wall hanging was made from one 3 yard piece of her luscious fabric...stripped...pieced...stripped again...pieced again...all the while trying to get the design that I did end up with...her fabric makes my heart sing...and she's pretty cool herself, too :)

Aren't these rich primary colors just fabulous!!!!

Nothing but another piece of Melody's fabric would have been good enough for the back...I've had some of her fabric in my stash since way back when she and Laura we're first in Paducah...not in the main arena but downtown at an alternate site. I've been hooked ever since.

I sent the top to Eileen Keane at Designing Quilts http://www.designingquilts.com/ and she did a wonderful job....I highly recommend her. This piece was quilted with variegated thread and I love the result.

Marcia

Play Day

Last Sunday a group of six of us met at Val's house for a play day...to share ideas, show and tell, and just talk about fabric, techniques, shows, books, quilting, and great classes we had taken...or want to take.


Nancy Bailey showed her beautiful sheers (silk organza and netting) that she discharged and/or dyed.
I played with a black sateen fabric and discharged it with bleach pen through a thermofax screen, and with discharge paste...same fabric...different results. I love the color this bleaches to.

Below are two small quilts by Diane Kopec...she does "Journal Quilts".....I love the size and all the feelings behind these very personal pieces.

Lisa Chipitene was working with linen canvas...she was expressing herself with red, white and black paint.

Nancy had dyed and made this jacket last year and wasn't satisfied with the way it turned out...so Pat Rodgers took it home and worked her fabric and stitching magic and this was the result....beautiful!

Below is a piece by Pat...showing her savvy with threads, paint, needle felting etc.....she has many talents...we just sit and stare in awe.

Finally...this is a grouping of Val's work. Val does fabulous surface design...and she displays it proudly in her studio...love this ladder idea.

She paneled and fixed up her basement wet studio, and the six of us were totally comfortable working there. Stamps are easily accessible....

Dyes and paints can all be seen...a place for everything...she has at least six of these racks around the room.

I'm off to Orlando tomorrow to see Keri and Mike....that belly is growing and I don't want to miss it all...I think we'll start preparing the nursery, buy some furniture and set up a registry...can't wait!

Marcia